Men’s book group ready for the next decade-long chapter

Morpeth’s only all-male book group has celebrated its tenth anniversary.

Morpeth Men’s Book Appreciation Society (MMBAPS) has met monthly since February 2006, regularly attracting a dozen members to discuss fiction and non-fiction, often by middle-aged male writers.

Over the years the group has read works by well-established writers, as well as first time authors, from Alan Bennett to Irvin Yalom, and covered a vast range of genres, from Ageing to Zombies.

Convenor and Head of Fund-raising Neil Shashoua said: “Not all of our ideas worked.

“Once we all learned speed reading to prepare ourselves for tackling Tolstoy’s masterpiece War and Peace. When we met a month later, all we could recall was that it was about Russia.”

Having read over 100 books in the group’s first decade, it plans to read double that number in the next ten years. This will be achieved by reading two short books each month, possibly ones aimed at pre-school children.”